Help needed: HQ Pressure Kim

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Krams 949

I really need some help with my latest deck, since I can't seem to make it work. Is the idea bad or am I just doing it wrong?
Any comments welcome.

The idea was to pressure HQ with a Gang Sign + HQI combo and use a combination of Hammer, Imp and Scrubber to trash every accessed card.

My main problem is that I need too much time to build up and the corp has already finished the game when I'm ready to apply pressure through runs and Gang Sign accesses. Early game runs are pretty inconsistent, since I can't find my breaker suite fast enough. I have tried a version with +3 Faust, -1 Corroder, -1 Mimic, -2 Yog.0 as breaker, but Faust didn't work for me as I ended up trashing cards I needed and having to click for cards way too much. I have considered Crypsis, but I don't think it's really better.

Another problem is that the Gang Sign tactic works when set up, but can't always be set up, because I can't tutor them. And when I don't draw them the rest of the deck isn't really great, because it's just economy and standard anarch stuff. Most influence is used up by the HQ pressure combo.

8 comments
17 Nov 2015 esutter479

IMO, Kim is better with a tutor. My choice is 2x Special Order. If you're gonna get in somewhere, you need to be set up to do so before the Corp can get an opportunity to lock you out.

17 Nov 2015 Krams

Where to cut for Special Order? Maker's and Career Fair?

17 Nov 2015 pleaix

Needs more lamprey

17 Nov 2015 Koala

i think the general problem is, that even if you get into HQ destroying one event is not that big of a deal for the corp while you have to invest quite a lot for it. It is not a good enough game plan. If you want to use Faust as your main breaker you probably need some more carddraw like Hotel, inject, I've had worse, John masanori and quality time. Trope and Memstrip are far too slow in my opinion and are dead cards in the earlygame. As Multiaccess I would prefere Keyhole or Medium to Maker's Eye which you can only use once.

17 Nov 2015 Krams

Thank you all for your feedback :)
I made a lot of changes based on your comments and will make some more test plays.

17 Nov 2015 enk

If you drop career fair, consider swapping Liberateds for Day Jobs or something. Not having the 6 creds really hurts your tempo when you're desperate for money. Or if you have leftover influence, go nuts with Lucky Find perhaps. Armitage Codebusting is also a good "I need money now" option.

17 Nov 2015 Bigguyforyou518

Your biggest problem is that HQ access-based pressure is a poor game plan. Even if you destroy everything in their hand, they can still play a perfectly strong game by simply playing the cards that they draw on their own turn. R&D lock means the runner hits all the agendas before the corp does - HQ lock does not.

HQ access (and destruction) is much better reserved for bursty, unpredictable plays that catch off guard a corp who has been hoarding agendas (with Legwork) or combo cards (with Wanton Destruction or Imp). HQ pressure in general should probably be more focused on credit denial via Lamprey, Vamp, or Account Siphon.

Finally, even though Edward Kim has a great reason to want to touch HQ a lot, you absolutely need to be able to threaten other servers. Especially in Anarch, you're doing yourself a disservice by not including a Medium (works great with Kim's ability) or Keyhole to force the corp to respond to multiple strategies.

17 Nov 2015 Krams

I made some more test plays with two different versions and both run much more smoothly than the original. One is stripped off some clumsy stuff, has a Special Order, a Medium and generally more backup plans. The other is focussed on Faust which much better draw.

But I still loose, even if I manage to get 10+ accesses out of Gang Signs and keep trashing every card I can get my hands on. Eventually they just manage to build up a scoring remote I can't really get into and then install whatever they draw into that server. If I check every time, I'm broke fast. If I don't, they can easily score.
The version with Medium can mitigate that a little bit by pressuring R&D as well, but it is slowed down too much by establishing the HQ lock first.

@Bigguyforyou518 "Your biggest problem is that HQ access-based pressure is a poor game plan."
Yup, you just confirmed what I suspected to be the main problem behind the deck idea.

To answer my initial question: "Is the idea bad or am I just doing it wrong?" Both.

But hey, it was worth trying out!